Category: essays

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Rethinking Democracy for the Age of AI

Posted on By infossl
artificial intelligence, democracy, essays, Security technology, Uncategorized

There is a lot written about technology’s threats to democracy. Polarization. Artificial intelligence. The concentration of wealth and power. I have a more general story: The political and economic systems of governance that were created in the mid-18th century are poorly suited for the 21st century. They don’t align incentives well. And they are being … Read More “Rethinking Democracy for the Age of AI” »

Lattice-Based Cryptosystems and Quantum Cryptanalysis

Posted on By infossl
cryptography, essays, quantum computing, quantum cryptography, Security technology, Uncategorized

Quantum computers are probably coming, though we don’t know when—and when they arrive, they will, most likely, be able to break our standard public-key cryptography algorithms. In anticipation of this possibility, cryptographers have been working on quantum-resistant public-key algorithms. The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has been hosting a competition since 2017, and … Read More “Lattice-Based Cryptosystems and Quantum Cryptanalysis” »

The Rise of Large-Language-Model Optimization

Posted on By infossl
artificial intelligence, essays, search engines, Security technology, Uncategorized

The web has become so interwoven with everyday life that it is easy to forget what an extraordinary accomplishment and treasure it is. In just a few decades, much of human knowledge has been collectively written up and made available to anyone with an internet connection. But all of this is coming to an end. … Read More “The Rise of Large-Language-Model Optimization” »

A Robot the Size of the World

Posted on By infossl
ChatGPT, essays, Internet of Things, LLM, robotics, Security technology, Uncategorized

In 2016, I wrote about an Internet that affected the world in a direct, physical manner. It was connected to your smartphone. It had sensors like cameras and thermostats. It had actuators: Drones, autonomous cars. And it had smarts in the middle, using sensor data to figure out what to do and then actually do … Read More “A Robot the Size of the World” »

AI and US Election Rules

Posted on By infossl
artificial intelligence, deep fake, essays, laws, Security technology, Uncategorized, voting

If an AI breaks the rules for you, does that count as breaking the rules? This is the essential question being taken up by the Federal Election Commission this month, and public input is needed to curtail the potential for AI to take US campaigns (even more) off the rails. At issue is whether candidates … Read More “AI and US Election Rules” »

AI Risks

Posted on By infossl
artificial intelligence, essays, national security policy, regulation, Security technology, Uncategorized

There is no shortage of researchers and industry titans willing to warn us about the potential destructive power of artificial intelligence. Reading the headlines, one would hope that the rapid gains in AI technology have also brought forth a unifying realization of the risks—and the steps we need to take to mitigate them. The reality, … Read More “AI Risks” »

Political Disinformation and AI

Posted on By infossl
artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, disinformation, essays, propaganda, Security technology, social media, Uncategorized, voting

Elections around the world are facing an evolving threat from foreign actors, one that involves artificial intelligence. Countries trying to influence each other’s elections entered a new era in 2016, when the Russians launched a series of social media disinformation campaigns targeting the US presidential election. Over the next seven years, a number of countries—most … Read More “Political Disinformation and AI” »

LLMs and Tool Use

Posted on By infossl
artificial intelligence, essays, LLM, Security technology, Uncategorized

Last March, just two weeks after GPT-4 was released, researchers at Microsoft quietly announced a plan to compile millions of APIs—tools that can do everything from ordering a pizza to solving physics equations to controlling the TV in your living room—into a compendium that would be made accessible to large language models (LLMs). This was … Read More “LLMs and Tool Use” »

December’s Reimagining Democracy Workshop

Posted on By infossl
artificial intelligence, essays, infrastructure, Security technology, Uncategorized, voting

Imagine that we’ve all—all of us, all of society—landed on some alien planet, and we have to form a government: clean slate. We don’t have any legacy systems from the US or any other country. We don’t have any special or unique interests to perturb our thinking. How would we govern ourselves? It’s unlikely that … Read More “December’s Reimagining Democracy Workshop” »